If eating is an agricultural act, as Wendell Berry so famously said, then what better way to celebrate the connection between food and farming than at Dirt to Dining?

Jesse Cool, the down-to-earth owner-cook (don't call her a chef!) of Menlo Park's Flea Street Cafe is hosting this benefit for the Ecological Farming Association right in her own backyard--which just happens to be a bountiful edible garden on the edge of the Stanford campus.

Cool, well known for her longtime dedication to seasonal, locally-sourced and sustainable cuisine, is opening up her address book, too. On hand to nosh and chat will be dozens of organic farmers and winemakers, including those from Full Belly Farm, Frog's Leap Winery, Green Gulch Farm, Live Earth Farm, Swanton Berry Farm, Robert Sinskey Vineyards, Frey Vineyards, and more.

And of course, going along with the garden tours will be plenty of delectable food and wine. That fava-bean canapé? Probably made from beans grown by the guy sipping sauvignon blanc right next you. Never seen a fava bean in its natural habitat? It's over there, hanging on vines right next to the carrots. Dining doesn't get any dirtier than that.

Dirt to Dining: A Day in Jesse Cool's Kitchen Garden
Sunday, June 7, 2009
2pm-5pm
2150 Amhearst Street
Palo Alto, CA
Tickets: $75

My mother never wanted to be taken out on Mother's Day. "Don't you dare," she'd say, half-joking but half-serious. Mostly, she disliked the obligatory part of it, the thought of being surrounded by, as she said, "all those people who probably never talk to each other the rest of the year, having to be nice to the old bat because it's her day." Not us, of course, but still she had no interest in getting hauled out for overpriced mimosas and underdone eggs Benedict.

What she did like was a homemade breakfast, wobbled up the stairs as soon as the oldest of her three girls was able to carry a tray. We didn't make anything particularly fancy, but just putting together eggs, toast, and coffee can be a challenge when you're four, seven and eight, even with Dad on deck. Partly, I think, she enjoyed the simple luxury of a morning off, but it also reassured her that we'd picked up the basics of what she did to feed us, day in and day out.

As she attests in her lavishly illustrated and user-friendly new book, Williams-Sonoma Family Meals: Creating Traditions in the Kitchen, cookbook author and former PlumpJack Cafe chef Maria Helm Sinskey feels the same way. Kids should know where their food comes from, whether it means picking out carrots at the market or helping Dad fry shrimp.

This isn't a kids' cookbook; instead, it's a cooking-together kind of book, full of dishes and menus that a whole family can make and enjoy together.

Helm Sinskey, her husband (acclaimed organic winemaker Robert Sinskey) and their two girls are adorable, the styling is charming, the recipes look both tasty and accessible, and alright, I'll admit it: by page 50, I was envious (those chickens! that lavender! those sweet dirty carrots!), and by page 260, I was downright suspicious. Who were these preternaturally well-behaved children daintily cutting out star shapes from their very own homemade marshmallows? As they frolic in the meadows around the Sinskeys' gorgeous wine-country house while stuffing handfuls of fresh vegetables into their mouths and saying things like "Mommy, you make the best vanilla ice cream ever!" the whole package can seem almost too rustically perfect.

Then again, it's a Williams-Sonoma book, not real life. And dinner with the Sinskeys sure looks like fun. In a time when some kids live on juice boxes and Cheerios, and other parents treat a single cupcake like a gateway drug to a lifetime sugar binge, Helm Sinskey's approach is refreshingly down to earth.

Her family seems to make the most of that old standby, the varied and balanced diet. Fresh fruits and vegetables are treated as a joy and a treat, not like pills that have to be gooped with brownie batter before they'll go down. As a smart mom and chef, she advocates for sustainable, responsible eating, providing helpful lists of recommended seafood, for example, or the differences between grass- and grain-fed beef. But she also doesn't flinch from serving reasonable amounts of butter, cream, steak, and yes, marshmallows. She can wax rhapsodic about red lentils and yellow split peas while also giving step-by-step instructions for making your own bacon.

In fact, the rainy-day projects interspersed throughout the book, like rolling pasta and pizza dough, simmering chicken stock, and making homemade jam and ricotta cheese, really make this two books in one.

The everyday recipes are good enough for company but generally simple enough to get on the table for a family meal, especially if some little hands help shell the peas, shuck the corn, or peel the shrimp.

The projects are part science (how does yeast grow? why does milk curdle?) part kitchen technique, and part educational messy fun. Who needs a Game Boy when you can be making real, honest-to-Pete home-cured bacon? OK, that last one might take a little convincing. But a kid who can make her own bacon is a kid well-prepared for adulthood. Thank Maria Helm Sinskey for that.

For years I have heard people wax poetic about the food at Google. The rumors seemed unbelievable: fresh organic, sustainable and locally grown foods prepared under the tutelage of a five-star chef. Oh, and did I mention it's all free? Well, free if you work there. As if those stock options weren't sufficient. It's enough to make a freelance editor and writer cry.

So when a friend of mine who works for Google asked me join him for lunch one day, I jumped at the chance. I wanted to see for myself how the food operation at Google worked, and, more than that, if the hype lived up to the reality.

I had my own employee on-site dining experience years ago, when I was just out of college and worked as an assistant in the script development department at Walt Disney Studios. I quit after a year as I wasn't up to swimming with sharks, but while I was there, I was able to benefit from a fairly good company commissary. It was run by Marriott Foods and although it wasn't a five-star restaurant, it had a decent burger, a nice daily fish entrée, a solid deli, and breakfast at reasonable prices. Yet while I and the other underlings were dining at picnic tables outside, Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the directors, agents and stars were all on the upper floors of the Team Disney building. In a circular dining room with views of, as Johnny Carson used to say, beautiful downtown Burbank, the mucky mucks would eat food prepared by a noted chef on china plates that had little Mickey Mouse ears around the edges. So as I walked onto the Google campus, I couldn't help but wonder if there was downstairs-picnic-table dining for the masses and Mickey-Mouse-china dining for the brass? Just how good is the food for the everyday workaday engineer at Google?

Through my Google friend Dan, I set up an appointment with Scott Giambastiani, one of seven Executive Chefs at Google, and we arranged a time to meet. When I googled Scott from my home computer, I realized that if he was any indication of this company's seriousness about food, I was in for a nice lunch. Scott was trained at the California Culinary Academy and then interned at The Lark Creek Inn (a restaurant I have loved for years). He has worked with Gary Danko at the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, and then spent 9 years at Viognier in San Mateo. He left in 2006 to go to Google and seems quite happy with his choice. I had a great conversation with Scott. He was very welcoming and happy to share with me the ins and outs of Google dining, give me the skinny on some Google food legends, and detail how the dining operations are run.

Once I was on the Google campus, I was happy to see that dining at Google isn't like dining at Disney. Google offers 18 cafés for their employees, which includes one at the San Francisco campus and one in San Bruno. There is no upstairs dining for the elite and outside dining for regular employees. It all seemed pretty egalitarian.

The many cafés at Google are run by individual vendors who report to Google. Chefs like Scott act as ambassadors for Google and make sure all the cafés offer equivalent quality and value. As in many dining establishments, the menus are created daily and are dependent on what foods are available that day from the many farms and vendors they use. Local farms, such as Happy Boy, drop off food daily and the meals are then prepared on site. Other items, such as rolls and pastries, are purchased from local vendors and quality-checked by Google's chefs.

In addition to its many cafés, Google has set up micro-kitchens throughout their offices. These are stocked with fresh coffee and often espresso machines, sandwiches, Naked Juice, cashews, dried fruit, It's It cookies, and a variety of sodas and chips. As with the cafés, each kitchen is different. Although they all offer the same basic items, 20% of each kitchen's offerings are unique to that kitchen and are chosen to meet the demographics of a specific office area, which are determined through surveys. So, as you might guess, the kitchens on floors with sales and marketing people have more raw nuts and the engineers want more chips.

When I walked through a few buildings, there seemed to be a kitchen around every corner. When I asked Dan about this, he said that according to Google lore, there is food within 150 feet of every office. Scott then confirmed the rumor as true. It seems that Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's founders, believed no one should ever be more than 150 feet from food (a philosophy I can get behind). They therefore had their offices built with numerous kitchens so workers could easily pop over for a quick bite while never needing to leave the near vicinity. I have to say that although this seems pretty convenient to the workers, I'm sure Google is getting a nice return on the fact that employees don't ever stray far from their desks. Sort of like supplying pollen at the bee hive.

The food choices at Google are very research-driven. Googlers (this is what Google calls its employees) can fill out online and paper questionnaires about the food they're served; polls are taken; and they even have a Lego voting system in the dining areas where employees can vote through building a Lego structure using different colored blocks. The color you use says what you thought of your meal (i.e., red means "better luck next time," yellow means "keep trying," while green means "very good"). I couldn't figure out how this actually worked as each dining area offers an abundance of food and the Legos didn't seem to actually pinpoint a specific entrée, but it was interesting nonetheless.

The data Google gets from all those polls and surveys is crunched and then used to shape their food program. To satisfy the needs of their diverse population, they offer a variety of different dining venues. No Name offers a healthy vegetable-focused menu that includes raw food, while Pintxo has Spanish tapas and paella. 150 offers only local food grown within a 150-mile radius from the Google campus. There's also a Mexican taqueria, a deli, and numerous all-purpose dining areas, like Big Table where I ate. These offer a variety of choices, including Indian food stations, pizza zones, sushi bars, and anything else you could really think of. Before leaving, my friend Carol (Dan's wife) and I stopped off at the smoothie bar, named Slice, which was full of funky red and blue chairs and stools: quite a hip place to set up your laptop and work while drinking a free wheat grass shot.

So how was the actual food? Read Part 2 Next Thursday where I continue my review by covering the café Big Table along with the smoothie bar. In the meantime, here's a Google recipe for Heirloom Tomato and Summer Berry Gazpacho with Goat Cheese Ice Cream that Scott gave me.

Heirloom Tomato and Summer Berry Gazpacho
Makes: 8 servings
Ingredients:
3 lbs. red heirloom tomatoes, washed, stemmed and chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 ea. red bell pepper, washed, seeded and chopped into 1-inch pieces
2 ribs celery, washed and chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 ea. English cucumber, washed and chopped into 1-inch pieces
1-pint each fresh strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, rinsed and picked over.
4 tbsp red verjus or red wine vinegar
2 cups club soda or cold water
2 tbsp brown sugar
8 sprigs cilantro, chopped (reserve two sprigs for garnish)
10 ea basil leaves, chopped (reserve two leaves for garnish)
12 sprigs parsley leaves, chopped (reserve two sprigs for garnish)
1 each lime, juiced
Salt to taste
cayenne pepper to taste

1 recipe Goat Cheese Ice Cream, prepared (below)

Preparation:
1. To begin this easy and delicious soup, start by making certain that all the fruits and vegetables are rinsed clean under cool running water.
2. Rough chop the first four ingredients as stated above.
3. Place the chopped vegetables, berries, verjus, club soda and brown sugar into a blender.
4. Cover and puree until smooth.
5. Adjust the seasoning with salt and cayenne to taste.
6. Next, pour the soup into a mixing bowl and stir in the chopped herbs.
7. Allow the herbs to sit in the soup refrigerated for 15-20 minutes.
8. Finally, strain the soup mixture through a fine strainer, pressing firmly with a spatula or ladle to force the pulp through the strainer.
9. Discard any pulp that remains in the strainer.
10. Add the juice of one lime to the soup.
11. Serve at once. Garnish soup with fresh berries, diced cucumber, fresh herbs and Goat Cheese Ice Cream.

Goat Cheese Ice Cream
Makes: 4 cups
Ingredients:
2 cups Heavy whipping cream
½ cup Whole milk
4 egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
3 Tbsp corn syrup
6 oz goat cheese, Laura Chenel brand if possible
Pinch of salt

Preparation:
1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepot, bring the cream and milk to a scald.
2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar and slowly pour in some of the hot cream to temper the eggs. This keeps the eggs from scrambling.
3. Pour the eggs into the cream and continue to cook for 2 to 3 minutes over medium-low heat, while constantly stirring the gently scraping the bottom of the pot with a rubber spatula.
4. Continue cooking until the mixture coats the back of a spoon and steam rises from the top.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the corn syrup and goat cheese and then whisk this mixture into the cream mixture until smooth.
6. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer and chill this mixture in an ice bath.
7. Once chilled, place the ice cream base into a single serving ice cream machine and follow your manufacturer’s instructions for spinning.

If you eat out and read blogs and live in the Bay Area, then you've surely heard your share about the doors opening soon at this shiny, new Noe Valley restaurant.

Perhaps you've even followed the saga, Chef Brett Emerson's wild ride from inspiration through daily exasperations and deep disappointment to -- at last! -- his very own kitchen.

Chef Brett Emerson

Brett's ability to remain hopeful and focused, even through the darkest days of building a restaurant, exhilarates all of us who nurse big, dangerous dreams, the kind that frighten away even those who love us and that chew into us slowly, tenderly, insistently.

This is not a review -- too early. This is not a profile -- I'm not objective enough.

Rather, this is an open thank you note to a friend and colleague for sharing his passion with us. It is a letter of gratitude to every chef and restaurateur who takes on the worry, the stress, the pain. To cooks who sweat on the hot line. To servers who balance oversized plates and placate the oversized egos. To all the small business owners who, together, shoulder the weight of our economy.

Traces of past summers and lingering flavors.

I first met Brett nearly fifteen years ago at cooking school. Tall and angular, quiet yet warm, he aced our spice identification test -- the only one in our class who recognized whole fenugreek seeds -- and since then, we've followed each other's meanderings through one kitchen after another.

Two summers ago I was picking fat, juicy olallie berries with him as he faced a very long and rocky road of financing, construction, marketing and menu planning. His vision wouldn't allow him to take the easy path. This week I watched him, in his pristine chef whites directing his own kitchen staff, with Elan welcoming guests and pouring wine, and I realized, yes -- anything is possible.

Elan Drucker pours one of their well-selected Spanish wines.

Please support your local restaurants, all those small businesses that are the true gems of San Francisco's food world. Yes, chains may offer you a free this or that to entice you in. Yes, eateries that use expensive reservation systems are so convenient. Yes, established kitchens are safe. Yes, parking in certain neighborhoods can be a nightmare. And yes, even the best can stumble from time to time.

Contigo's dishes are simple and comfortable, yet packed with the big flavors of Spain.

But remember that they're just like our friends, with their moods and quirks and bad hair days. We'd be poor without their generosity, unhappy without their love. Behind these businesses are individuals, something we forget now as we Google and Yelp our way to a meal. Let's try to maintain the whole -- ideas and people, personal risks and community spirit -- and not reduce eating to half-stars and sassy sniping.

It'll be crazy for a few weeks at Contigo, as everything from the plumbing to the food deliveries settles into workaday smoothness. But talk to any chef and you'll know that every morning brings surprises. It's never easy feeding a roomful of strangers.

Both the menu and wine list draw from the Iberian Peninsula, with a focus on the flavors of Barcelona.

So, head over to Contigo and introduce yourself to Brett. He'll be standing there inches from you. Small restaurants of this caliber and individuality are becoming increasingly rare, with investment groups opening one "concept" after another and chef/owners long ago an endangered species. Right now, there's no better place for experiencing the excitement of dreams achieved.

Contigo
1320 Castro Street (at 24th)
San Francisco, CA 94114
(415) 285-0250
Map

Jamon waiting to be grilled.

Feeling crabby? On the West Coast our crabs are the Dungeness variety, as opposed to the soft shell crabs or Blue crabs found on the East Coast. They are considered a "best choice" for sustainability according the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch. Dine at local restaurants in February and enjoy special crab dishes and tasting menus. Use your Signature Visa card and receive a commemorative cookbook feature over forty prominent chefs and restaurants, including Chris Cosentino of Incanto, Bruce Hill of Bix and Craig Stoll of Delfina.

Dungeness Crab Week is the second of three seasonal city-wide food celebrations to promote San Francisco chefs and restaurants. As a part of the celebration, the 7th annual Crab Cracking Contest at Union Square benefiting the San Francisco 49ers Foundation will be held Saturday, February 28. Union Square chefs paired with San Francisco 49ers and local celebrities will compete in a crab cracking contest. Enjoy tastes of the created crab dishes, a beer and wine garden as well as music and other activities for the entire family.

What: Dungeness Crab Week

When: February 19 - March 1, 2009

Where: Participating San Francisco restaurants include 1300 Fillmore, Bix, Delfina, Ducca and Jardiniere.

How: Make reservations

Enjoy this fresh take on crab, from Mark Dommen, Chef/Partner from One Market Restaurant.

Dungeness Crab and Asian Pear Salad 

Ingredients:
2 Asian pears
10 large fresh mint leaves, plus more small leaves
1 green onion
About 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
Pinch cayenne chili power
1/2 pound Dungeness crab meat
8 large shelled sections Dungeness crab legs
2 French breakfast radishes
2 cups maché, rinsed and drained 
4 tablespoons Straus organic yogurt
1 tablespoon basil oil or mild extra-virgin olive oil
 
Preparation: 
1. Peel pears, core, and julienne fruit on a Japanese mandolin with medium teeth blade.  In a bowl, mix pears with 1 tablespoon each lemon olive oil and juice, cayenne, and sea salt to taste.
 
2. Stack large mint leaves and cut into fine slivers. Finely dice green onion. Mix mint and onion with pears.
 
3.  In another bowl, gently mix crab meat with remaining lemon oil and lemon juice to taste.
 
4. Rinse radishes; cut into a fine julienne and mix with a few drops lemon oil and lemon juice. 
 
5. Spoon 1 tablespoon yogurt onto center of 4 plates, streaking artistically. On each plate, set a ring mold in yogurt. Fill molds equally with pear salad; press to compact evenly. Top equally with crab meat; press to compact evenly. Carefully lift off molds.
 
To serve:
Top each salad with 2 crab leg pieces, garnish with radishes, maché, and tiny mint leaves; drizzle with basil oil.
 
Makes 4 portions

Local chef and restaurant owner Ranjan Dey will share the history and stories of curries from around the world, including the spread and cultural effect of curry in Southeast Asia. Learn about curry and get a chance to sample it as well at this presentation put on by the World Affairs Council Young Professionals International Forum.

Ranjan Dey not only runs a successful restaurant in San Francisco, New Delhi, but also is the creator of a line of spices and seasoning mixes. I have used several of the spices and really like them. If you don't cook Indian food frequently, and don't have a set of fresh Indian spices, using prepared spice mixes is easy and convenient. It is also much tastier than using prepared sauces.

You can also find good Indian spice mixes and pastes at local spice shops and Indian grocery stores such as Bombay Bazaar in San Francisco and Viks in Berkeley.

What: Curries of the World, History & Tasting

Where: World Affairs Council, 312 Sutter St, 2nd floor, San Francisco

When: November 25th, 2008 6 pm to 8 pm (arrive early for registration)

How: Purchase tickets, $15 and $10 for World Affairs Council members.

Why: Every week there are lots of culinary programs and events to choose from, but only occasionally do I find one that is such a bargain to attend. Tickets for this talk and tasting with a large sampling of curries, are only $15.

Here is a mild curry recipe that can be made using any Madras style curry powder.

Shrimp Curry

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 large onion, quartered
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
1- 2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon curry powder
1 to 2 fresh serrano chiles, halved lengthwise, some seeds removed if desired
1/2 cup water
1 14-oz can unsweetened coconut milk (not low fat)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 lb large shrimp (21 to 25 per lb)

Preparation:
Pulse onion, ginger and garlic in a food processor until finely minced. Cook onion mixture with salt and sugar in oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in curry powder and chiles and cook, stirring frequently, 2 minutes. Stir in water, coconut milk, and lime juice and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Meanwhile peel shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Add shrimp to sauce and simmer, stirring occasionally, until shrimp are just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Season with salt to taste and serve over rice.

Watch Video Tour of A16 + Wine

Hands down, one of the most impressive cookbooks this season is A16 Food + Wine. The book is divided into sections on the wines of southern Italy, and a longer section on food served at the restaurant. In the food section it's particularly helpful to read the introduction to learn about chef Nate Appleman's approach to cooking Campanian style in San Francisco. A pantry section details the essential ingredients of the cuisine and then, finally, there are the recipes themselves. You'll find tripe, bruschetta, pickled peppers, roasted sardines as well as pizza and pasta. If you are a fan of this restaurant the book is a must.

For a taste of the food and wine, the Marin Jewish Community Center in conjunction with Book Passages presents chef Nate Appleman and Wine Director Shelly Lindgren. They will discuss their book, and share the source of inspiration for their restaurant A16.

What: A16 Food & Wine Tasting

When: November 13, 2008 7pm @ 7:00

How: $15 members / $20 public / $45 inc. book ($40 retail) Purchase tickets online.

Where: Osher Marin JCC, 200 North San Pedro Road , San Rafael

Why: Nate will be serving his wildly popular Monday meatballs and sharing other favorite recipes from the book. Shelly Lindgren will be offering wine tastings, advice, and a chance to order many of the featured wines for your holiday table.

Butternut squash is everywhere right now. Here is an easy recipe from the book that is a refreshing change from the sweet roasted version.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Pancetta and Chiles

Serves 6

1 (3 pound) butternut squash
Kosher salt
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 ounces pancetta, diced (about 1 cup)
2 Calabrian chiles, stemmed and chopped (or 1/4 teaspoon dried chile flake)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees

Halve the squash lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Peel the squash halves and slice crosswise into 1/2 inch thick pieces. You should have about 8 cups.

In a large bowl, toss the squash with a few generous pinches of salt and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Divide the squash between 2 rimmed baking sheets, spreading the pieces evenly over the pans. Roast the squash, rotating the pans front to back about halfway through the cooking for about 15 minutes, or until cooked through and golden.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a small pot over low heat. Stir in the pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 4 minutes, or until crispy. Stir in the chiles, remove from the heat and set aside.

When the squash is ready, remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Transfer to a large bowl, add the pancetta mixture, and toss to mix. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt if needed. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve immediately.

Recipe reprinted from A16 Food + Wine, copyright ©2008 by D.O.C. Restaurant Group, LLC, courtesy of Tenspeed Press.

Next week is the third annual San Francisco Wine. Dine. Donate dinner. It's a fundraiser for America's Second Harvest and our own San Francisco Food Bank in particular. Each year the venue changes, but it always includes a fantastic multi-course meal, a chance to meet Tanya Steel, editor in chief of Epicurious and to learn a bit about the programs of the food bank. Last year there was even a snazzy gift bag.


This year's dinner is being held at Acme Chophouse and it reunites friends and chef colleagues--Traci des Jardins and Elizabeth Falkner. Here is a sneak peek at the "From Farm to Table" menu:

Passed Hors d'oeuvres:
Tomales Bay Oysters
Craig's Charcutiere
Steak Tartare

First Course:
Cured anchovies boquerones style, squid-charred and marinated with local shelling beans and a sardine a la escabeche. Family style with Grilled Breads and marinated seasonal vegetables.

Second Course:
Spit Roasted Porchetta, Devil's Gulch Pork, Slow Cooked Kale with Lemon, Romano and Wax Beans with Tomato

Cheese:
Andanate Dairy Cheese with Breads

Dessert:
Elizabeth's Dessert olive oil crema, summer fruits (pieces of peach, and or plum) berries, pine nut streusel, and avocado ice cream with a grating of spicy chocolate

What: Wine. Dine. Donate Dinner

Where: ACME Chophouse, 24 Willie Mays Plaza, San Francisco

When: Wednesday, July 30th 2008 Reception 6:15 p.m. Dinner 7:15 p.m.

How: Tickets are $125 and include a donation to America's Second Harvest The Nation's Food Bank Network. Purchase tickets.

Why: Support a cause that serves many in our own community, experience a collaboration between two great chefs and enjoy one great local meal.

More than anything, the dinner is a chance to focus on those at risk of going hungry in our community. Undoubtedly you have seen the headlines in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle about soaring food costs and food banks "feeling the pinch." The numbers tell a sad story, in 2007 the San Francisco Food Bank served 118,000 people and today they are serving 124,000.

Here's a great recipe from Elizabeth Falkner's Demolition Desserts cookbook, that uses luscious ripe cherries. Spoon them over ice cream, cake or cheesecake.

Wine-Soaked Cherries
Makes about 1 cup

1/2 cup Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar (about 1 1/4 ounces)
1 cup halved and pitted Bing cherries (about 4 ounces)
Small pinch of freshly ground black pepper

In a saucepan, combine the wine and sugar and place over medium-high heat. Heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, for about 2 minutes or until the mixture comes to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced by half, forming a syrup. Pour the syrup into a heatproof bowl and let cool for 2 minutes.

Stir the cherries and pepper into the syrup and let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Serve the cherries right away, or cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 2 months.

Recipe reprinted from Elizabeth Falkner’s Demolition Desserts, Copyright 2007 Tenspeed Press

Forget for a moment that the late Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki was a heavy-drinking playboy who once boasted of impregnating three different women at the same time. Forget that his Benihana empire turned his family into some Japanese-American version of Akira Kurosawa's Ran. And try, too, to forget that trademark jheri-curled head of his.

Rocky Aoki helped change the way America looked at Asian food and, in his own special way, how Americans dined.

The cultural confusion displayed in this commercial shows us just how far we, for the most part, have come in our acceptance of "Oriental" Cuisine-- a term which now seems quaint, even racist. Before Mr. Aoki opened the first Benihana Restaurant in New York City in 1964, "Oriental" food meant, to most Americans, chop suey and fortune cookies-- both, incidentally, American inventions.

Despite its Japanese trappings, Benihana is a distinctly American restaurant. Named for Mr. Aoki's parents' coffee shop, which was itself named after a little red flower discovered surviving the fire-bombing of their Tokyo neighborhood, the concept behind the new, Japanese-style dining-experience was brilliant.

Take American ingredients like steak, shrimp, and chicken, cook them up in a setting heavy with paper screens and lacquer work, pipe in some hypnotic shamisen music, and have it all served up by, not waiters, but cleaver-juggling chefs.

It didn't seem to matter that the food wasn't exactly Japanese. Mr. Aoki's success lay in the fact that he persuaded American to think it was.

And his idea could not have come at a better time. Benihana was born just months before the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act was passed, reversing decades of exclusionary policies against immigrants from Asia, as well as other non-Western nations.

Though Aoki's concept of a Japanese Steakhouse was, at the time, anything but authentic Japanese food, by getting Americans used to the idea of Asian cuisine through the dressing up of essentially non-threatening foodstuffs in vaguely exotic-yet-accessible dishes, the road ahead was made clear for the advent of later Asian food crazes, like sushi in the 1970's, Thai in the 80's, and Vietnamese in the 90's.

Benihana, too, was instrumental in moving the theatrics of dining away from the waiter, with his twin, dying arts of Caesar salad-tossing and Crêpes Suzette-flaming, and over to cooks with samurai-like knife skills and their lightening-fast slicing of animal flesh. There was (and hopefully still is) always an element of danger and surprise when dining teppan-side, as though one might wind up finding a finger, curled and sizzling, among the scampi.

Mr. Aoki died last week of undisclosed causes, plagued by hepatitis C, diabetes, and cirrhosis of a liver once sliced in two. He lived the American dream of fame and fortune, and died amid the nightmare of litigious children and bitter ex-wives. He lived fast and died quietly. He was a source of both outrage and outrageousness. And he was as American as apple pie or, more accurately, a Japanese Steakhouse.

Sayonara, Mr. Aoki.

The Asian Culinary Forum is hosting a panel discussion with a group of celebrated San Francisco chefs. They'll share how they developed their signature styles and how their personal and professional experiences have shaped their vision of Asian cuisine. Learn about Asian flavors and how local chefs successfully challenge public expectations.

The panelists are:
Kelly Degala, executive chef, Pres a Vi and Va de Vis
Eric Gower, personal chef and author Breakaway Cook
Michelle Mah, formerly executive chef, Ponzu
Kirti Pant, executive chef, Junnoon
Charles Phan, executive chef, Slanted Door Slanted Door
Linda Carucci (moderator), chef director, International Culinary School at The Art Institute of California -- San Francisco

What: Are You What You Cook Panel discussion and wine reception. Slanted Door and Va de Vi will provide a light buffet of savory appetizers. Elaine Villamin, Eden Canyon Vineyards’ owner and winemaker, will be pouring tastes of her family’s fine Cabernet blend. Cookbooks written by the chefs will be available for purchase on-site from Book Passage, and the chefs will be happy to sign copies following the evening’s discussion.
Where: One Ferry Building, 2nd Floor, San Francisco
When: 6:00pm-8:30pm, Monday, July 21, 2008
How: $35 general admission, $25 restaurant trade or full-time student (with ID) Register to attend.
Why: What's particularly compelling about the panel is the amazing diversity of their backgrounds and styles of cooking. For example, consider Eric Gower, a chef we interviewed on Bay Area Bites last year. We also reviewed his latest book, the Breakaway Cook. His experience living in Japan and curiosity about Asian ingredients have inspired a unique perspective and cuisine.

Here's an example of his style of cooking. This recipe comes from The Breakaway Cook and is perfect for Summer.

Moroccan Morokyu

2 (or more) fresh cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and sliced into spears about 3 inces long and 1/2 inch thick
1 Tablespoon yellow miso
1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses

Arrange the cucumber spears on a plate. Mix together the miso and pomegranate molasses in a small bowl and place the bowl on the plate to serve.